Turtle Soup August Mini Crop

I might have been absent from this blog lately, but I promise you I have been creating!  Not a lot of scrapbooking going on, but I have been making cards in between work and family life.

In August the team at Turtle Soup hosted a "Back-to-School" themed Mini Crop and I made the following projects.....

Thanks for stopping by!

Feeling Sketchy | Sketch #142

I am playing along at Feeling Sketchy again and this is the sketch they're using to inspire us.....

I decided on a bold black and white colour scheme and some some stamps from Mama Elephant's "We Click" stamp set.  

I white heat embossed the sentiment, camera and washi tape stamps onto black cardstock and stamped the polaroid frame onto white before fussy cutting everything and adding to my card base with foam tape.  Some baker's twine added some texture.  Quick and easy!

Turtle Soup | Spring Blog Hop

Hi everyone and welcome to the Turtle Soup Spring themed Blog Hop. We hope you enjoy everyone’s inspirational and creative projects. Here is the full list in case you lose your way. See you back here again to leave a finishing comment to get your ballot to win a random prize. Enjoy and off you go hopping!

1. Sara - (using Turtle blog) http://turtlesoupmagazine.blogspot.com/

2. Bev http://beeceecreativity.blogspot.com/

3. Deb P http://tassiedeb.blogspot.com.au/

YOU ARE HERE 4. LouiseB http://madeatnumber27.blogspot.com.au/

5. Lisa Moen http://lisasscrappyhideaway.blogspot.com/

6. LouiseT http://timelesscraftmumma.blogspot.com.au/

7. Chris  http://ole682000.blogspot.com

8. Toni http://memoriesonpages.blogspot.com/

9. Phillis http://justfindtimetoscrap.blogspot.com/

10. Colleen http://scrappingranny-colleen.blogspot.com/

11. Elisa http://2crazycrafters.blogspot.com.au/

12. Karen http://calmcreations.blogspot.com/

13. Joan http://thegovsplace.blogspot.com/

14. TURTLE SOUP BLOG http://turtlesoupmagazine.blogspot.com/

Although we're well into Autumn here in Australia, there is still plenty of sunshine around and the days are warm. I was inspired to create some cards using flowers and pretty soft spring colours.

I have made a set of three cards using the Flower Patch stamp set from Stampin' Up as well as Stampin' Up inks for my stamping and watercoloured stripes.

Thanks for hopping along- your next stop on the Blog Hop is the lovely Lisa Moen at  http://lisasscrappyhideaway.blogspot.com/.

Feeling Sketchy | Sketch #137

I needed a quick birthday card and had a stamped and watercoloured panel leftover from another project sitting on my desk.

When I need to whip something up fast, I like to play along with a challenge and Feeling Sketchy has this sketch for inspiration.

I made a shaker card using scraps of cardstock and vellum.  I used nesting dies from Spellbinders to create my panel and frame, layering up six frames for dimension.  I find this method is much easier than using foam tape to enclose the shaker material.  My stamped panel was created using a mixture of tiny images from Hero Arts and I used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours.  The Hero Arts sentiment was stamped on vellum with Versamark ink and heat embossed with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder.

Thanks for dropping by!

CAS-ual Fridays | CFC144

I decided to play along with CAS-ual Friday's TicTacToe Challenge this month, and I made a card featuring stencilling, die-cutting and embossing.

I started with some watercolour paper and a Stampin' Up star stencil.  I applied Versamark Ink through the stencil and then white heat embossed the stars.  I then watercoloured the background with Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Fossilized Amber.

I die-cut some balloons from plain white cardstock with dies from MFT and then coloured those with the same Distress Inks using a foam ink blending tool.

I took a sentiment from Avery Elle and white heat embossed it on some vellum before trimming it to a banner shape.

Some silver thread for the balloon tails were the final finishing touch.

Thanks for dropping by!

Feeling Sketchy | Sketch #130

Although I'm no longer on the DT at Feeling Sketchy, I do like to play along when I can.  I needed a birthday card for a special lady so I decided to use Sketch #130 for inspiration.

I started by stamping, making and heat embossing a floral image from Hero Arts.  Then I watercoloured the flowers and background with a cheap set of pearlised watercolours I got from Spotlight.  I was pleasantly surprised that I could blend them to achieve some shading and they behaved quite well when I coloured the background.

I then stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from Avery Elle and matted that on some black cardstock before adding baker's twine and scattering some sequins here and there.

I will be sure to use these watercolours more in the future- the subtle shimmer is lovely in real life!

Just Add Ink | #283

I'm playing along with Just Add Ink again as I needed a birthday card and I spotted their sketch to inspire me.

I started with some Tim Holtz Watercolour Paper and a Heidi Swapp stencil through which I applied some Texture Paste in a random fashion.  Once that had dried I used various pink and mauve shades of Distress Inks to watercolour around the dried paste.

I then took a piece of white cardstock and gold heat embossed a background stamp from Hero Arts and cut it to a banner shape.

Using the same Distress Inks I used on the background, I stamped and diecut images from Stampin' Up's Flower Patch set.  After applying the ink, I spritzed the stamps a couple of times with water to create a looser look to my stamping.  

I gold heat embossed a sentiment from the Flower Patch set and cut it into another banner shape.

A loose nest of gold thread and some gold sequins were the final finishing touches.

This was a fun card to make as it's not my usual clean and simple style, but I know the recipient will love it :-)

Feeling Sketchy | World Cardmaking Day Challenge

The Feeling Sketchy Team are running a special challenge to celebrate World Cardmaking Day and here is the inspiration photo.....

Although it's not Autumn here in Australia, I decided to play along with these gorgeous colours and make a birthday card.

I added Distress Inks in Bundled Sage, Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade to some watercolour paper, then diecut a tag from the panel.  I then diecut another four tags from white cardstock to add dimension before popping it all back into the negative space.  I painted and clear embossed a chipboard "happy" from 2Crafty and white heat embossed a sentiment from Avery Elle on a strip of black cardstock.

I added some black and white twine to the tag to co-ordinate with the sentiment strip.

Thanks for stopping by- all the challenge details can be found on the Feeling Sketchy blog.

Kraft Plus | October Challenge

I haven't had much time (or if I'm honest, the inclination)  to scrap lately but I am really enjoying the challenges at the Kraft Plus Challenge Blog.  This month's challenge is another lovely one, and once again, it pushed me out of my comfort zone.  

I'm not one to embellish my layouts very much, but I decided to give this a go while sticking to my typical clean and simple style.  I also have a very large collection of chipboard thanks to the Scrapbooking Memories Masters sponsors, so I decided to overcome my fear of chippy and use some of it up!  I also dug into my collection of old transparencies and Fancy Pants Designs collections.

I tied some twigs together with twine as the base for this cluster...

This chipboard piece from 2Crafty is heat embossed with copper embossing powder from Zing.

Here's another twig wrapped in twine...

I found some leaves from a rose bush in our garden that had a lovely maroon colour, so I layered those under some old Hambly transparency.

This chipboard feather from Imaginarium was painted and then copper embossed just on the tips...

Thanks for stopping by- I have some serious catching up to do on Project Life and posting other random scrapbook layouts.....stay tuned!

Feeling Sketchy | Sketch #128

Hi everyone!  Although I am no longer on the Feeling Sketchy Design Team, I am going to try to play along whenever I can- I just can't resist a sketch!

I am joining in for Sketch #128.....

.....and using some scraps of paper I had on my desk after finishing a scrapbooking layout, I created this......

The papers are from an old Cosmo Cricket collection and the red heat-embossed stamped sentiment is from Avery Elle's Winter Wreath Stamp Set.

Thanks for stopping by!

Feeling Sketchy | Sketch #126

It's time for another Feeling Sketchy Sketch and this time we welcome Lacy Sunshine as our challenge sponsor.

Here's the sketch we're playing with.....

I must admit that at first glance this sketch scared me but once the idea for a large image with inlaid circle die-cutting came to me, I was good to go!

I used the Gamer Reggie image from Lacy Sunshine, sized him in Photoshop and then printed him on Copic-friendly paper, before getting to work with my Copic markers.

I used my Kaisercraft nesting circle dies to cut parts of my panel and then again to cut the same kraft cardstock as my card base to make the layers.  I used four layers of kraft under each circle cut from my main panel and once adhered to each other popped them back in the main panel like puzzle pieces- make sense?

I added some Zig Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents to Reggie's eyes, and I used an older Hero Arts sentiment stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Denim Zing embossing powder.  I used a Spellbinders die and then the appropriate size Kaisercraft circle die to make the kraft arrow for the sentiment.

I'm really happy with how this card turned out so remember to never let a sketch frighten you- use it to try something new and different!

Be sure to head over to the Feeling Sketchy Blog for more inspiration and for all the challenge details.